omfortable. You must guess again."

"Joe, then," she said.

"No, it wasn't Joe, either," said Sam. "Joe can sleep on the edge of a
fence rail as well as anywhere else, and he never would have thought of
making our floor soft and smooth. Guess again."

"Maybe it was brother Sam," said Judie.

"Oh, certainly. It must have been I," replied Sam. "I must have done it.
I'm so strong and active now-a-days. Yes, on reflection, I presume I did
it, and the man in the moon helped me. Now I think it was a very
thoughtful and helpful thing for anybody to do, so you ought to kiss me
for doing it, and when the weather gets clear you must throw a kiss to
the man in the moon, too, for his share." And with that he kissed the
little housekeeper, and she felt herself abundantly repaid for her work
and for the thoughtfulness she had shown. She was never so happy as when
Sam praised her, "because he's such a splendid big brother," she would
explain.

Tom, seeing that Sam was getting better at last, began to hope for his
complete recovery, and the hope made him buoyant of spirit again. Judie,
too, who watched and weighed every symptom in Sam's case, discovered to
her delight that he was decidedly better, and the discovery made her as
happy as a healthy girl well can be. Poor Joe seemed to be the only
miserable one in the party. He said almost nothing, answering questions
with a simple "yes" or "no," and sitting moodily in his corner, when he
stayed inside the "drift cavern"--which was Sam's name for the new
abode--at all. He spent most of his time, however, on top of the pile,
where he watched the water and the clouds. The rain had ceased, but the
river, which was now creeping over the broad bank, continued to rise.

"What is the matter with Joe?" asked Sam after the boy had gone out for
the twentieth time.

"I think he's afraid we're all going to be drowned," said Tom.

"Drowned? How?"

"Well, he says wood will float, and so he thinks when the water comes up
under the drift-pile, it will all float away."

"What nonsense!" exclaimed Sam. "Why didn't you tell him better, Tom?"

"I did; but he sticks to it, and--"

"Well, couldn't you explain it so that he would understand it and not
have to trust to your judgment for it?"

"No, I couldn't. The fact is, I don't quite understand it myself. There
isn't a stick in this whole pile that won't float, and I don't quite
understand why the pile won't. But I don't doubt you're right about